Post operative Needs of Patients and DETECT Model of Patient Assessment

Post operative Needs of Patients and DETECT Model of Patient Assessment

Background

Mrs. Brown is transferred to the ward after laparoscopic appendectomy, now the foremost responsibility of a nurse is to prevent post-surgical complications like infections and chronic pain (Davey& Ince, 2004). A registered nurse will be responsible for triggering the healing process of surgical incision to help the patient return to a stable and healthy state as soon as possible by undertaking post-operative ABCDE assessment and integrating effective nursing and pharmacological interventions(Wise, 2000).

Part A: ABCDE post operative assessment

Airway

First of all, airway obstructions and problems of Mrs. Brown are to be evaluated for ensuring the stability and clarity of airway to know the healthy intake of oxygen into respiratory system (White & Dungan, 2002). As Younker (2008) states that airway obstruction may also result from the central nervous system depression so it can emerge in the patients who have undergone a surgery. The post operative airway assessment of Mrs. Brown reveals that her breathing voice is noiseless and her chest movements are steady. The initial talking with her reveal that she was not putting additional efforts to converse. Hence her airway is clear and does not have any obstruction.

Breathing

The chronic pain causes respiratory problems in patients who have gone an abdominal

surgery like laparoscopic appendectomy (Davey & Ince, 2004). The lung asculation performed via stethoscope and application of pulse oximeter to assess her breathing assessment depicts that her respiratory rate is 12 respirations per minute (RPM) which is entirely normal. The pulse oximeter provides substantial measurement of SaO2 for detecting hypoxaemia (Younker, 2008). She does not need ventilation or oxygen therapy. As her airway came out to be clear, so her gas exchange was in order.

Circulation

Hypovelmia and hypotension are the two main post-operative problems especially in cases like of Mrs Brown (Wise, 2000). The measurement of blood pressure of Mrs. Brown shows the results as 105/60 mmHg which is slightly lower in contrast to the normal range specified for her age group as 120/80 mmHg but the situation is not alerting because the most potential reason can be the starvation recommended before laparoscopic appendectomy. The arterial oxygen saturation level has come out to be 96%. The close examination of her skin reveals that the skin colour was stable and there was no any unusual sweetening so her blood circulation assessment can be termed as normal.

Disability

The level of consciousness of Mrs. Brown has been immediately assessed by deploying the AVPU method which graded her on the basis of alertness (A), voice responsiveness (V), pain responsiveness (P), or unresponsiveness (U)( Reed et al, 2007). Mrs. Brown states that she has pain (1) on a scale of 1-10 which shows the swift pace of her recovery. As McCaffrey (1968) truly states, “Pain is whatever the patient says it is, and exists whenever the patient says it does” (Davey & Ince, 2004). So the pain following any type of surgery must be the focus of ultimate ...